5 Ways to Stay Healthy While Traveling

When the Local Pharmacist Becomes Your Travel MVP

(aka how we spent the first two months sick and learned our lesson the hard way)

Not the cute kind of "sniffles and soup" sick. I’m talking full-blown fever, food poisoning, weird rashes, and mystery bugs that laugh in the face of your European medicine kit.

We quickly realized something important: European meds often don’t work abroad the way we expect them to. Either the bacteria is different, or the meds just aren’t strong enough—or maybe we were simply naive. Whatever it was, popping pills from home didn’t help. But you know what did? Going to the local pharmacy.

Pharmacists abroad know exactly what you need. We learned not to delay a visit. If you can get better in 48 hours instead of suffering for two weeks out of stubbornness or pride, just go. Seriously, it’s not worth ruining half your trip because you were “waiting it out.”

So, based on our sweaty, stomach-cramping, snotty experiences, here are my top tips for staying healthy while traveling (learn from our mistakes, please):

Stay hydrated

Keeping yourself hydrated is important because you can easily get dehydrated and have to deal with the headaches that come from not drinking enough water.

This is particularly important when you’re in hotter climates and you might not realize that you’re becoming more dehydrated as the day goes on.

Ideally, you want to have a bottle of water on your person for the day so that you can continue to drink throughout it. That way, you’ll stay hydrated even when on the go. Around a liter to a liter and a half of water a day is going to help keep you in good shape when it comes to hydration.

Get plenty of sleep

Sleep is definitely important, and it’s something that you want to get plenty of, where possible. If you’re not getting enough sleep, then you’re likely to find yourself feeling more run-down and tired as a result.

Traveling is tiring work, and so you’ll want to try and cram in as much sleep as possible, perhaps even taking an afternoon nap with sleep gummies from CBDistillery to help. Ideally, you want to get anywhere between 7-9 hours of sleep a night if you can do that.

Pack snacks

Snacks are a good way of staying energized and ready for whatever the day of travel will throw at you. Make sure you’re packing high-protein and carbohydrate snacks where possible, as these are going to provide you with the energy you need, versus high-sugar snacks that give you the temporary energy kick but come with the sugar crash.

Plenty of snacks on your person will also keep you going for longer, particularly if you’re delayed while out and about.

Stay active

Staying active is helpful for having all the energy that you need to stay on your toes while traveling. For some travel adventures, it can be fairly exhausting, so the more exercise you can do, the more of a tolerance you can build up.

Keeping yourself active is always something that can be healthy for your body and mind, regardless of what travel you’re doing.

Wash your hands before touching your face

It’s always good to wash your hands before touching your face, otherwise, you might end up passing germs and bacteria into your mouth, which ultimately makes you ill. There are also a lot more dangers abroad when it comes to your health, so it’s always good to practice safe hygiene for the sake of yourself and for others you’re coming into contact with.

Health is Freedom

Staying healthy means you get to enjoy all the things you traveled for: the street food, the hikes, the dancing in random festivals you didn’t plan to attend. Don’t let stubbornness or bad habits ruin your adventure.

We sure learned our lesson. Now we trust the locals, listen to our bodies, and never travel without electrolytes. Ever again.